ἄκανθα

Presumably from ἀκή (akḗ, “thorn”) +‎ ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”). Probably not related to Sanskrit कण्टक (káṇṭaka, “thorn, thornbush; prick, needle”).

ᾰ̓́κᾰνθᾰ • (ákantha) f (genitive ᾰ̓κᾰ́νθης); first declension

1. thorny plant
   1. (Egypt) specifically Vachellia nilotica (phono-semantic matching of Coptic ϣⲟⲛϯ (šonti))
2. thorn, spine, prickle
3. (figuratively) thorny issue; something difficult or painful.

• → Greek: άκανθα (ákantha)
• → Arabic: أَقَنْثَا (ʔaqanṯā)
• → New Latin: acantha
  • → English: acantha

• “ἄκανθα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἄκανθα”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ἄκανθα”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ἄκανθα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ἄκανθα in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• ἄκανθα in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• G173 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• ἄκανθα in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • backbone idem, page 58.
  • brier idem, page 98.
  • fish bone idem, page 323.
  • prickle idem, page 640.
  • spine idem, page 802.
  • thistle idem, page 867.
  • thorn idem, page 867.
• Kramer, Johannes (2010) “10. ἀκακία, ἄκανθα / acacia, acantha”, in Von der Papyrologie zur Romanistik (Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete; Beiheft 30), De Gruyter, →DOI, →ISBN, page 154